Bad Old Days

The riots outside Iowa Beef Processors' slaughterhouse in tiny Dakota
City (pop. 1,440), Neb., over the past two weeks recalled the labor
wars of the 1930s. As union workers hurled railroad spikes and ball
bearings at state troopers and strikebreakers, stinging clouds of tear
gas and chemical spray swirled into protesters' eyes. Earlier, enraged
members of Local 222 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union
had spread nails across the highway. Then, screaming "Scab! Scab!" they
threw rocks and bricks at newly hired workers trying to enter the
plant. Republican Governor Charles Thone was finally...